A great image viewer

[asphalt-cowboy (imported)]

...

More importantly Irfanview is LIGHTWEIGHT (ie: It starts up and operates very fast).

Nothing I hate worse than heavy/bloated program which requires 10+ seconds of disk-thrashing just to view a picture (Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks, etc)

Agree on lightweight, but Photoshop and Fireworks are NOT viewers, they are very complex photo editing softwares. I often use them both, which is why I want the viewer to be fast and simple, not loaded with editing functions that will never equal those of the established softwares. So when I just need a viewer, the most important are the speed and the shortcuts. When I need more than just a viewer, I use Photoshop (sometimes Fireworks or Corel Photopaint).

I hate

"Windows Picture and Fax Viewer",

but like you said, on some computers have no choice.

XnView looks interesting, I think I'll try when I have time.

[Prudence (imported)]

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Photoshop and Fireworks are NOT viewers, they are very complex photo editing...

True. But the reason I mentioned those two is because when you install them, they take over as the default application for opening any picture type they support (ie: they take over as the system's picture-viewing application)... Which leads to the irritating 10+ second delay I mentioned.

(the problem is of course easily fixed by either installing Irfanview or changing file-associations).